Singapore and Re-engineering Economic Space: Observations from the Middle East

• Main Authors: YEOH, Caroline, HOW, Wilfred Pow Ngee
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2011
• Subjects: Internationalization; Singapore; GCC countries; Gulf states; state-enterprise strategy; mega projects; Asian Studies; International Business
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3150; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/4149/viewcontent/YeohCaroline2011RJEBSingapore.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The hallmark of the Singapore state-led, market-driven interventions, and their efficacy, have often been a matter of academic contention. This paper, as part of our series on this topic, revisits Singapore’s state-enterprise strategy in the context of the city-state’s determined efforts at internationalization through a series of state-engineered projects, orchestrated to encapsulate economic space for Singapore-based firms to expand into the region and beyond. This internationalization stratagem remains controversial; premised, as they are, on the exportability of Singapore’s state credibility, systemic and operational efficiencies as well as technological competencies of Singaporean companies, government-linked or otherwise, to locations where these attributes are less distinct. To shed some light on this controversy, and to add an ‘Arabian allure’ to our ongoing research, we present evidence from the gambits of Singapore companies into the GCC countries. Our results show that the strategic advantage created in the Singapore-styled mega-projects remains uncertain; that the performance of Singapore companies is stable, if unspectacular. At the same time, however, additional complications relating to individual socio-political environments continue to plague these mega-projects, even as they adapt to impending challenges in a changing environment.